MyNotes – Leverage Leadership 5: Student Culture

With a few colleagues, we’ve started reading Leverage Leadership. Here’s a little about the book:

Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (Managing Director of Uncommon Schools) shows leaders how they can raise their schools to greatness by following a core set of principles. These seven principles, or “levers,” allow for consistent, transformational, and replicable growth. With intentional focus on these areas, leaders will leverage much more learning from the same amount of time investment. Fundamentally, each of these seven levers answers the core questions of school leadership: What should an effective leader do, and how and when should they do it.

I like the fact that it starts out with formulas and recipes for success. You know, “Do this and you’ll get these results.” Who wouldn’t like to be told what to do, and then what results to search for? I hope you’ll join me as I take notes on this book and ask myself questions based on highlighted items for implementation. I may also intersperse comments in square brackets [my thoughts here]My Notes – Chapter 5: Student Culture

In schools with strong cultures, students receive a continual message that nothing is as important–or as engaging–as learning.

If you want a culture of excellence, you build it by repeated practice.

Student culture is not formed by motivational speeches or statements of values.

If the instructional levers help to make sure teachers are teaching as effectively as possible, student culture makes sure students build the habits of mind and heart that allow their learning to fly.

With our consistent culture, everything becomes predictable and safe.

When it comes to developing a great school culture, it’s the details that separate contenders from weekend warriors.

There’s a lot to like in this chapter, as well as lot of WORK implied for people, especially if staff culture (Chapter 6!) is broken or limping along. It’s funny that student culture chapter came before staff culture. The most telling item is the profiles in leaders guiding change in student culture. It is specific, leaving nothing to chance. Everything is scripted out and rehearsed. How many of us can achieve that in our schools?

To be honest, much of my professional learning has been a la Leader #1, which introduces big ideas, discusses it, then leaves it up to the individual to practice it on their own. The only times I’ve seen that NOT happen has been with writing/reading workshop, problem-based/project-based learning.